Free style deformation

ABSTRACT

A method for modifying an object design using a computer comprises the steps of: selecting a first sub-design of the object design comprising a first free form deformation geometry and a first free deformation control volume that is variable and adaptive; choosing a second sub-design comprising a second free form deformation geometry; and replacing the first geometry with the second geometry.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the deformation of objects using anextension of free form deformation (FFD) that can be applied to computergraphics or to optimize real-world designs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Free Form Deformation (FFD) techniques have been introduced tomanipulate objects in computer graphics and computer animations. The FFDhas been applied to optimize shapes of aerodynamic objects inconjunction with evolutionary algorithms. The FFD techniques is known toprovide a reasonable compromise in the flexibility of shapes and a smallnumber of parameters, which in turn results in a small dimensionalsearch space for the optimization. Furthermore, it has been demonstratedthat the shape deformations defined by the FFD techniques can be appliedequally well to deform a grid for computational fluid dynamicscalculations. Using the FFD techniques, it is possible to obviategenerating of the manual grid even for complex geometries. In manycases, design optimization of complex shapes becomes feasible only whenthe FFD techniques are used for the representation. In the FFDtechniques, deformations of an initial design are described instead ofthe geometry itself. Therefore, the number of parameters is independentof the complexity of the shape and is determined solely by the requiredflexibility of the deformation.

An FFD system is generally defined by a lattice of control points. Amodification in the positions of the control point results in adeformation of the geometry inside the control volume. For optimization,it is important to minimize the number of parameters. The reduction inthe number of parameters is achieved by properly initializing thecontrol volume because the number and position of control pointsdetermine the flexibility of the shape.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the basic idea of the FFD.The sphere of FIG. 1 represents the target object of the optimization.The target object is embedded in a lattice of control points (CP).First, the coordinates of the target object must be mapped to thecoordinates in the spline parameter space, according to a procedureknown as ‘freezing.’ If the object is a surface point cloud of thedesign or a mesh that originates from an aerodynamic computersimulation, each grid point must be converted into spline parameterspace to allow the deformations. To perform this calculation, variousmethods have been proposed including, for example, Newton approximationor similar gradient based methods.

After freezing, the object can be modified by moving a CP to a newposition. The new CP positions are the inputs for the spline equationsbased upon which the updated geometry is calculated. Because everythingin the control volume is deformed, a grid from computational fluiddynamics that is attached to the shape is also adapted. Hence, thedeformation affects not only the shape of the design but also the gridpoints of the computational mesh needed for the Computational FluidDynamics (CFD) evaluations of the proposed designs. The new shape andthe corresponding CFD mesh are generated at the same time without theneed for an automated or a manual re-meshing procedure. This featuresignificantly reduces the computational costs and allows a high degreeof automation. Thus, by applying FFD the grid point coordinates arechanged but the grid structure is kept intact.

One main disadvantage of the FFD method is its sensitivity to theinitial placement of the control points. An inappropriate set-upincreases the necessary size of the parameter set; and therefore,increases the dimensionality of the search space. One of the reasons forthe inappropriate set-up is that the influence of a control point on anobject decreases as the distance from the object increases. Even a smallobject variation requires a large modification of the control point ifthe initial distance between the object and the control point is large(this also violates the strong causality condition that is particularlyimportant for Evolution Strategies). The large modification of thecontrol point in turn often modifies other areas of the design spacethat has to be compensated for by moving other control points. Hence,correlated mutations of control points are often necessary for a localchange of the object geometry.

To reduce the effect of the initial positions of the control points,direct manipulation is introduced as a representation that allowsdetermination of variations directly from the shape. Therefore, localdeformations of the object depend only on the so-called object points.

Direct manipulation of the free form deformations (DFFD) is an extensionof the standard FFD. Instead of moving control points (CP) having effecton the shape that is not always intuitive, the designer is encouraged tomodify the shape directly by specifying so-called object points (OP).

Although the initial setup of the control volume in the DFFD is similarto the FFD, the control volume becomes invisible to the user andcorrelated modifications are calculated analytically. In a first step,the lattice of control points is constructed and the coordinates of theobject and the CFD mesh are frozen. The control volume, however, can bearbitrary. That is, the number and positions of control points do notneed to have any logical relationship to the embedded object other thanthe fact that the number of control points determines the degree offreedom for the modification. In the next step, the designer specifiesobject points, which define handles to the represented object that canbe repositioned. The shape is modified by directly changing thepositions of these object points. The control points are determinedanalytically so that the shape variations (introduced by the objectpoint variations) are realized by the deformations associated with thenew control point positions. In other words, the control points arecalculated in such a way that the object points meet the given newpositions under the constraint of minimal movement of the control pointsin a least square sense. Of course the object variations must berealizable by the deformations from the newly calculated positions ofthe control point. That is, if the number of control points is toosmall, some variations given by the new position of the object may notbe represented by a deformation.

FIG. 2 illustrates an object point at the top of the sphere. Thedesigner is able to move this object point upward without any knowledgeof the “underlying” control volume that may be initialized arbitrarily.The direct manipulation algorithm calculates the corresponding positionsof the control points to mimic the targeted object point movement. Thesolution is shown in FIG. 2. The object point is chosen directly fromthe surface and the required movements of the control points to realizethe target movement of the object point are calculated, for example, bythe least squares method. The dotted control volume is invisible to thedesigner because the designer works directly on the object points, andthe control volume may be chosen arbitrarily.

The DFFD has several advantages over the standard FFD when combined withevolutionary optimization. The construction of the control volume, andthe number and distribution of control points in the DDFD are not asimportant as in the standard FFD. Furthermore, the number ofoptimization parameters equals the number of object points.

There are mainly two typical issues with the FFD. First, using the FFD,it is only possible to deform a design given initially. That is, thepossible shape modifications are limited by the design which wasinitially chosen for deformation. Conceptual or structural changes arevery difficult to achieve. For example, introduction of holes or edgesis either impossible or requires a huge amount of modification to thecontrol points.

Additionally, this process is very difficult and even impossible whendealing with designs that are not allowed to include holes in therepresented space. This problem occurs when the FFD is used fordeforming systems that are analyzed with computational calculationmethods such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) or Finite ElementMethods (FEM) to calculate specific features of the design. For example,if CFD is applied, a computational grid must be built according to thegiven geometry. If a hole must be introduced in the design, the holemust be meshed and be interfaced properly to the existing mesh toprovide the grid for a CFD simulation. In the standard FFD method, thisis not possible without a remeshing procedure that is very timeconsuming.

As a consequence, changes in the design are desired which providestructural design changes without holes in the represented space.

Secondly, when the FFD is applied, the design is modified by movingcontrol points and applying the new positions of the control point toupdate the design. Issues often arise when control points must be movedfor a significant distance to reflect a desired design change. Suchmoving of the control points results in a control point set that is veryill-structured because many control points are quite close to eachother. If control points are very close, further design modificationsare very difficult to achieve without having loops in the geometry.Therefore, a reorganization of the representation of the control pointsis strongly needed in order to allow further modifications to thedesign.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved methodand system for manipulating a design. In particular, it is an object ofthe invention to devise an improved method and system to introducestructural changes in a design or to reorganize the representation.

A method for modifying a representation of an object on a computeraccording to one embodiment of the present invention may comprise thesteps of selecting a first sub-design of the object, wherein the firstsub-design comprises a first free form deformation geometry and a firstfree form deformation control volume that is variable and adaptive;choosing a second sub-design, wherein the second sub-design comprises asecond free form deformation geometry; and replacing the first geometrywith the second geometry.

In a further embodiment according to the present invention, the methodmay comprise the step of applying the first free form deformationcontrol volume to the second free form deformation geometry.

In another embodiment according to the present invention, the method mayfurther comprise the step of adapting the first control volume such thatdistance between the first sub-design and the second sub-designdecreases. The adaptation of the first control volume may be achievedusing an optimization algorithm.

In still another embodiment according to the present invention, thesecond sub-design also comprises a second free form deformation controlvolume that is variable and adaptive. The method according to theembodiment of the present invention further comprises the step ofreplacing the first control volume by the second control volume. Thesecond sub-design may be chosen from a database. The second sub-designmay further be chosen by minimizing distance between the firstsub-design and the second sub-design. The method may further comprisethe step of automatically adapting the second control volume so that thedistance between the first sub-design and the second sub-designdecreases. Moreover, the adaptation of the second control volume may beachieved using an optimization algorithm.

A method for optimizing an object design on a computer according to oneembodiment of the present invention may comprise the steps of encodingthe geometry in the chromosome of the initial parent; reproducing theparent to get a number of offspring; mutating the deformations of theoffspring; constructing the geometry from the module tag and applyingthe deformations given in the chromosomes of the offspring to generatethe current design; evaluating all designs; selecting the best designaccording to the given fitness; repeating the previous steps until amodule replacement is intended; performing a shape similarity analysisbetween the current best design and geometries that can be built fromthe module database; calculating a probability for each geometryaccording to the shape similarity results for each design; choosing anumber of proper design candidates according to their probabilities;optimizing each of the proper design candidate according to the previoussteps with the new geometries encoded in the chromosome and the globalfitness equation for more than one generations; choosing the bestcandidate and activating it for the main optimization; and repeating theabove steps or terminating the process when a given stop criterion ismet.

The methods according to one embodiment of the present invention may beused for the optimization of a real-world object represented by thedesign. The optimization may comprise optimizing fluid dynamicobjectives.

The Free Style Deformation (FSD) according to one embodiment of thepresent invention introduces a modular concept for design modificationswith the FFD. A module is defined as the geometry that is situated in anFFD sub-control volume. The combination of common FFD techniques andreplacement of modules provides an efficient and highly flexiblerepresentation of complex structures. The design may be defined by acode specifying the sub-control-volumes to be combined, and thedeformations of each control point.

The features and advantages described in the specification are not allinclusive and, in particular, many additional features and advantageswill be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of thedrawings, specification, and claims. Moreover, it should be noted thatthe language used in the specification has been principally selected forreadability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selectedto delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood byconsidering the following detailed description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the basic idea of aconventional free form deformation.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a conventional Free Form Deformation ofa sphere using direct manipulation.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating spline mathematics, according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the preparation of a cylinder,according to one embodiment of the present invention

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the overall control volume, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a 4×4×4 sub-control volume, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating different types of frozen geometrymodules, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the deformation of the geometries inFIGS. 3 and 4, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the replacement of a module,according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the replacement of a module,according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of optimizing a designusing the free style deformation, according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or to “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiments is included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment.

Some portions of the detailed description that follows are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps (instructions)leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily,these quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic or opticalsignals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared andotherwise manipulated. It is convenient at times, principally forreasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values,elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like. Furthermore,it is also convenient at times, to refer to certain arrangements ofsteps requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities as modulesor code devices, without loss of generality.

However, all of these and similar terms are to be associated with theappropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels appliedto these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparentfrom the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout thedescription, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or“computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or“determining” or the like, refer to the action and processes of acomputer system, or similar electronic computing device, thatmanipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic)quantities within the computer system memories or registers or othersuch information storage, transmission or display devices.

Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps andinstructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should benoted that the process steps and instructions of the present inventioncould be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodiedin software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by a variety of operating systems.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus. Furthermore,the computers referred to in the specification may include a singleprocessor or may be architectures employing multiple processor designsfor increased computing capability.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purposesystems may also be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.In addition, the present invention is not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof the present invention as described herein, and any references belowto specific languages are provided for disclosure of enablement and bestmode of the present invention.

In addition, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to beillustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which isset forth in the following claims.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is now described withreference to the figures where like reference numbers indicate identicalor functionally similar elements.

Because the general concepts of the FFD is discussed above in detail,features of the representation that allow the set up of a modular FFDframework according to the embodiments of the present invention aredescribed below.

One of the features relevant for replacing modules is the underlyingspline mathematics. The spline mathematics is important for thedetermination of the parameters in spline parameter space and thedeformations.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the spline mathematics, according toone embodiment of the present invention. For a spline degree of three(3), cubes consisting of 4×4×4 control points are responsible for thecalculation of the geometry in the spline parameter space. Each cube isresponsible for a small part of the geometry.

Although the method according to the embodiments of the presentinvention is describe below with reference to the spline degree of three(3), the method may also be applied to other spline degrees in the samemanner. The method according to the embodiments of the present inventionis also valid for dimensions other than two dimensions. Additionally,although the method according to the embodiments of the presentinvention is described with reference to B-Splines, the method may alsobe extended to other types of splines such as H-Splines and T-Splines.

Because the B-splines for a spline degree of three (3) in a lattice ofcontrol points can be subdivided into smaller 4×4 squares (in threedimensions a 4×4×4 cubes), each one is responsible for the mathematicsof a smaller part of the whole system. This ‘local’ feature allows thereplacing of one (or more) of these squares (cubes) as long as theinterfaces are retained. Because every sub-control volume is responsiblefor the modifications of only a part of the geometry, replacing of sucha sub-control volume affects only the geometry within that sub-controlvolume. The affected geometry is identified by the frozen (s, t, u)coordinates in spline parameter space that are assigned to the specifiedsub-control volume.

Retaining the interfaces refers to two things. Letter A is used toindicate the module to be replaced and letter B is used to indicate themodule to be inserted. Retaining the interfaces, on one hand, refers tothe relationship that the structure of the sub-control volume of moduleA and the sub-control volume of module B are the same. That is, thenumber of control points and the knot vectors of the modules A and B areidentical. Such relationship is true for both the usage of clamped andunclamped splines in the sub-control volumes.

Retaining the interfaces, on the other hand, refers to the relationshipthat the initial boundary coordinates of the part of the geometry ofmodule A and the boundary coordinates of the part of the geometry ofmodule B are the same in order to guarantee smooth geometric transition.The smooth initial geometric transition of both modules A and B willalso provide smoothness when these modules are replaced and thedeformations are applied.

The first relationship of retaining the interface relates to theworkability of the proposed framework whereas the second relationship ofretaining the interface relates to a non-obligatory recommendation toproduce geometries that do not have any sudden cracks and maintainsmoothness.

In the method according to one embodiment of the present invention, oneor more of the squares (or cubes) may be replaced. Then, thedeformations of the new modules may be applied to achieve realstructural flexibility.

This feature enables the designer to replace one or more of thesub-control volumes and directly apply given deformations to thereconstructed design containing the new modules. The only constraint isthat the local structure of the control volume must be the same for allmodules.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the preparation of a cylinder,according to one embodiment of the present invention. To achieve themodule flexibility, it is necessary to build the geometries and tocalculate their coordinates in the spline parameter space. Therefore,the whole geometry is embedded in the control volume initially, which isadapted to the geometry. In the present case, a 6×6×4 control volume ischosen for the sake of simplicity.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the overall control volume, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention. As described above, for thesub-control volumes considered, each sub-control volume is responsiblefor a smaller part of the geometry during the freezing process.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a 4×4×4 sub-control volume, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention. The sub-control volume A isresponsible for a red region within the spline parameter space (that is,the red region of the geometry is assigned to the sub-control volume A).The grey region of the geometry is frozen by the other sub-controlvolumes. In FIG. 6, the blue region of the sub-control volume isresponsible for the red region of the geometry whereas the othersub-control volumes are responsible for the grey region of the geometry.

This preparation phase must be done for all different modules that maybe replaced to form new geometries during the design or optimizationprocess.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating different types of the geometry modulesthat is frozen in the way, as described above in detail with respect tothe control volume. The modules may be combined with the “base” module(the initial upper part of the cylinder) to produce structurallydifferent kinds of geometries.

In the same way as in the “normal” FFD, the control points may bemodified and the deformation may be applied.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the deformation of the geometries inFIGS. 3 and 4, according to one embodiment of the present invention.After construction of the geometry by combining all sub-control volumes,the geometries may be deformed by the same modifications on the controlpoints. In the right pictures of FIG. 8, the grey portion of thegeometry is the initial portion and the red marked portion of thegeometry is the deformed portion. In addition to this recombinationeffect, the deformation takes place on the geometry.

In other words, the new proposed method considers both the modulereplacement and the deformation for a high degree of shape flexibility.

An example framework for working with the FSD is described as follows:First, different geometries are frozen to a control volume and thesub-control volumes respectively (FIGS. 4 to 6). In the next step, aninitial geometry is built from a set of modules as the starting point.By the modification of the control points, the geometry is deformed. Atsome point in time, a desired deformation may not be realized because ofthe control points that are very densely distributed or because thedesigner wants to realize a conceptual change. If further deformationsneed to be performed, a module must be replaced.

This module replacement can be realized in different ways as describedin detail below.

I. Replacement of Selected Modules A and B

The modules may be chosen manually. The designer selects module(s) A tobe replaced. Then the designer selects module(s) B that is the desireddeformation and replacement of the modules.

The modules may be chosen automatically using a computational method.Alternatively, the designer may select module A for replacement and leta computational algorithm decide which module B from a given database isthe best choice for replacement. This algorithm can be based on, forexample, a shape similarity analysis. The shape similarity analysisattempts to find module B in the database which resembles closest to thecurrent deformed module A and makes recommendation for the replacement.

II. Replacing the Modules and Building the New Assembly

Non-neutral replacement: After modules A and B are determined, module Ais replaced with module B. Because the current control point positionsare directly applied, the geometry is deformed. Also, because initialmodule B differs from initial module A, the new geometry is differentfrom the geometry before the module was replaced.

Neutral replacement: After the modules A and B are determined, themodule A is replaced with the module B. Because the current controlpoint positions are directly applied, the geometry is deformed. Also,because initial module B differs from the initial module A, the newgeometry is different from the geometry before the module was replaced.To “repair” the design so that the geometry after the replacement equalsthe geometry before the replacement, an optimization may be performed.During this process, the control point positions are optimized in such away that the design using module B is as close as possible to the designbefore the replacement using module A.

After the module replacement takes place, the deformation process can beresumed.

The database of geometry modules itself can be extended at any time.Therefore, if an adequate geometry module is not within the database,the part of the geometry to be inserted is designed manually. After thisprocess, the design is embedded in the sub-control volume and is frozen.A big advantage of an existing database is that the mapping fromcoordinates in Cartesian space to coordinates in parameter space isalready done. Therefore, the replacement process is very fast because nofreezing needs to be done.

In summary, there are two main features that are achieved by using theFree Style Deformation (FSD)

First is the creative design. After modifying the initial design, twomodules are replaced that are chosen manually or by computer software.When the new module is inserted, the already performed deformations areapplied to the new module and the new shape is calculated. This designcan now be kept for further deformations or the module can again bereplaced. It is worth to notice that there is no knowledge on how thenew design will appear before the replacement because the deformationtakes place immediately and modifies the new module.

Second is the reorganization of the representation. By replacing themodule evolved by control point modifications to a similar design thatdid not undergo any deformations so far, the representation isreorganized because the control points are better distributed. Aninteresting feature is that the designer does not need to care for therepresentation. A computational algorithm can select the adequate designand optimize the shape so that it fits as close as possible to thedesign before the replacement. This will result in a better distributionof the control points, which allows the designer to have more freedom onthe design.

In both cases, real structural changes can be achieved because themodule replacement can also include the integration of holes or edges inthe design.

The following Figures illustrate the module replacement process.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the module replacement, according toone embodiment of the invention (Creative Design) in which:

(a) A defines the module to be replaced, c_(A) refers to the currentcontrol point positions assigned to module A;

(b) R defines the remaining geometry, c_(R) refers to the currentcontrol point positions assigned to the geometry R; and

(c) the prime symbol (′) represents a modified design from its basedesign. For example, A′ is a modified design based on A, and its controlpoints are denoted as c_(A)′.

It is important to note that B′≠B≠A′.

The design built from A and R is deformed to A′ and R′, c_(A)′ andc_(R)′. Module B is chosen for replacing A′. This design is inserted andthe control point positions c_(A)′ are applied to result in a deformeddesign B′. Advantages of the described method are as follows:

(a) creation of large variations (even a-priori unknown);

(b) unchanged R′ after the module replacement;

(c) c_(A)′ are unchanged but search direction is different due todifferent B′∩R′; and

(d) This helps to escape local minima.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the module replacement, according toanother embodiment of the invention (Reorganizing the Representation) inwhich:

(a) A defines the module to be replaced, c_(A) refers to the currentcontrol point positions assigned to module A;

(b) R defines the remaining geometry, c_(R) refers to the currentcontrol point positions assigned to the geometry R; and

(c) the prime symbol (′) represents a modified design from its basedesign. That is, A′ is a modified design based on A, and its controlpoints are referred to as c_(A)′. Similarly, A″ is a modified designbased on A′.

The design built from A and R is deformed to A′ and R′, c_(A)′ andc_(R)′. Module B is chosen for replacing A′. This design is inserted andthe control point positions c_(B) are applied, which results in anon-deformed design B with a different remaining geometry R″ becausesome of the control points of the module B may affect R′. Next amatching may be applied. On one hand, to achieve a neutral insertion,the control points can be optimized in such a way that the geometrybuilt from B∩R″ is as close as possible to A′∩R′. This will result in ageometry B′∩R′″ defined by the optimized control point positions c_(B)′and c_(R)″. On the other hand, the matching process can be driven byonly a partial match so that the geometry defined in A′ is a part of thegeometry defined in B.

The advantages of the described method are: (a) c_(B)′ are betterorganized as c_(A)′ and allow more flexibility on the design; (b) Thishelps avoid local minima when the FSD is applied in optimizations; (c)This helps open up new directions for manual creative design; and (d) ifthe matching is applied B′∩R′″ are close to A′∩R′ but the control pointsare better distributed.

In another embodiment, the proposed method of the FSD may be extended bydirect manipulation. The only difference is in the handles. In thestandard FSD framework, the deformation is applied via the controlpoints. In a direct manipulation framework, the deformations are done bymodifying object points. These object points can be predefined on eachgeometry module or they can be defined after a module replacement.Because the control points are updated by computational algorithm, thedistribution and choice of object points depends solely on the designer.

In summary, the FSD is a very flexible representation which combines thefeatures of the standard FSD and the concept of modular geometries. Theadvantages are the efficient modelling of deformations of geometryinstead of the geometry itself, which is especially important forcomplex designs as well as allowing conceptual and structural designchanges by the replacement of sub-control volumes.

In another embodiment of the invention, the techniques of the FSD may becombined with an optimizer to solve design optimization problems inengineering, for example, in the construction of a turbine wing or anaircraft.

When combining the standard FSD with optimization, some important stepsmust be taken. First, the initial optimized design must be representedby the FSD. Therefore, an adequate control volume must be set up inwhich the geometry is embedded. Additionally, all modules available forthe optimization must be embedded in the FSD control volume and theircoordinates must be transferred to the parameter space. All modules willbe collected in a database.

Two types of information have to be managed as optimization parameters:(a) a unique tag that defines which modules are currently active (i.e.,which modules build the design); and (b) the deformations of the controlpoints.

During optimization, both parameters are varied. Therefore, the tag forthe active module combination may change as well as the deformations.There are several types of optimization algorithms available foroptimization, one of the algorithms being an evolutionary algorithm.

Using the evolutionary algorithms, the deformations and the tag for theactive modules are encoded in the chromosome of the initial parent.There are a lot of possibilities to perform the optimization. Forexample, the parent can be reproduced and slightly modified according tothe chosen strategy. On one hand, the deformations can be varied, and onthe other hand, the tag for the active modules can be changed.Alternatively, several generations can first be calculated only tomodify the deformations of the control points and then perform a modulechange. This allows at first to optimize the geometry based only ondeformations to globally adapt the geometry. By tuning the geometrymodule replacements, the performance can be enhanced because a newmodule can be closer to the optimum and the control points arereorganized so that more flexibility is achieved. There are a lot ofdifferent ways to provide a proper module. For example, the choice canbe done based on a shape analysis. By using a shape analysis, thecurrent geometry is compared to geometries which can be built from theexisting modules. The geometry that best matches the current geometrycan be chosen as active for further optimization. Usually this resultsin a better organized control volume.

But there are various ways to choose the new module, and therefore, anintelligent strategy is required to make the choice. There are twoextremes: the closest shape suggested by the shape similarity analysisto provide a smooth fitness transition after the new modules areactivated can be chosen. The disadvantage is the possibility of gettingstuck in a local optimum. Alternatively, a more dissimilar module whichleads to a step in the fitness curve but can overcome a local optimum ischosen.

A possible solution is to apply the concept of subpopulations thatassists in the choice of a proper module but retains the disadvantage ofa high computation requirement.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method for optimizing a designusing the FSD.

In step 1110, the geometry is embedded in an adequate control volume andthe sub-control volumes are determined.

In step 1120, the modular geometries are embedded in the sub-controlvolumes and a shape database is built. Alternatively, an already presentshape database may be used.

In step 1130, the tags for active modules and the control points areencoded.

In step 1140, the control points are optimized according to a givenfitness function for a given number of steps. The optimization maycomprise the sub-steps of varying the control points, calculating thedeformed geometry, and evaluating its performance.

In step 1150, it is determined whether an intermediate step forreplacing a module should be effected or not, for example, when thefitness function is a non-desirable value. If this is not the case, step1140 is repeated. In other words, the main optimization loop (steps 1130to 1150) comprises the following steps:

(a) Encoding of the geometry in the chromosome of the initial parent(the tag for the active module and the deformations are stored).

(b) Reproduction of the parent to get a number of offsprings.

(c) Mutation of the deformations of the offsprings.

(d) Construct the geometry from the module tag and apply thedeformations given in the chromosomes of the offsprings to generate thecurrent design.

(e) Evaluation of all designs.

(f) Selection of the best design according to the given fitness.

(g) Repeat steps (a) to (f) until a module replacement is intended

If a module replacement is intended, then the method continues with step1160 by performing a shape similarity analysis. Then the module isreplaced according to the above-described methods in step 1170.

In other words, the intermediate step for the module replacement maycomprise the following steps:

(a) Perform a shape similarity analysis between the current best designand geometries which can be built from the module database.

(b) Calculation of a probability for each geometry according to theresult of the shape similarity analysis for each design.

(c) Choice of a number of proper design candidates according to theirprobabilities

In one embodiment of the invention, Target Matching, i.e. anoptimization according to the steps 1130 to 1150 with the new geometryencoded in the chromosome of the initial parent may be affected. Thefitness is determined by minimizing the difference between the shapebuilt from the new modules and the current best shape that resulted instep 1150. If this optimization is performed, the step in the fitnesscurve is minimized. This intermediate optimization step optimizes eachof the proper design candidates according to the steps 1130 to 1150 withthe new geometries encoded in the chromosome and the global fitnessequation for several generations.

After performing step 1170, the method branches to step 1140 where thebest candidate is chosen and activated for the main optimization. Thewhole loop may be terminated by a given criterion.

Additionally it may be noted that it is also possible to integrate newmodules during optimization. For example, if the optimizer suggestslarge deformations and no module exists that is close to the deformedgeometry, the designer can construct this module and integrate it in thedatabase easily.

The combination of the FSD with optimization has the advantage that theFFD representation provides a good trade-off between the number ofparameters and flexibility. This good combination is extended by theconcept of replacing modules which allows reorganization of therepresentation during optimization and real structural changes in thedesign.

The FSD is especially useful when working with the CFD or othercomputational methods that need a computational grid for designevaluation. If the FFD is applied, the optimization is limited by thechoice of the initial design because it is not possible to realizestructural changes. For example, the introduction of a hole in thedesign is difficult to realize because a new CFD mesh has to beconstructed in the hole and carefully connected to the existing mesh.The FSD relies on predefined modules that already have a mesh and arewell interfaced. This allows a fast replacement of modules.

While particular embodiments and applications of the present inventionhave been illustrated and described herein, it is to be understood thatthe invention is not limited to the precise construction and componentsdisclosed herein and that various modifications, changes, and variationsmay be made in the arrangement, operation, and details of the methodsand apparatuses of the present invention without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention as it is defined in the appendedclaims.

1. A method of modifying a representation of an object on a computer,the method comprising: encoding the object into a representation of theobject; applying a modular free form deformation control volume to theobject representation; selecting, at the computer, a first sub-controlvolume of the modular free form deformation control volume of theobject, the first sub-control volume comprising a first free formdeformation geometry; choosing a second sub-control volume comprising asecond free form deformation geometry; and replacing the firstsub-control volume with the second sub-control volume in the modularfree form deformation control volume to modify the representation of theobject by using the free form deformation geometry of the secondsub-control volume instead of the free form deformation geometry of thefirst sub-control volume.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingapplying the first free form deformation control volume to the secondfree form deformation geometry.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising adapting the first sub-control volume to decrease distancebetween the first sub-design and the second sub-design.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein adapting the first sub-control volume is achieved usingan optimization algorithm.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondsub-control volume comprises a second free form deformation controlvolume that is variable and adaptive, and further comprising replacingthe first sub-control volume with the second control volume.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the second sub-control volume is chosen froma database.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second sub-design ischosen by minimizing distance between the first sub-control volume andthe second sub-control volume.
 8. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising the step of automatically adapting the second sub-controlvolume to decrease distance between the first sub-control volume and thesecond sub-control volume.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein adaptingthe second sub-control volume is achieved using an optimizationalgorithm.
 10. A method of optimizing an object design on a computer,the method comprising: encoding the object into a representation of theobject; applying a modular free form deformation control volume to theobject representation; selecting, at the computer, a first sub-controlvolume of the modular free form deformation control volume of theobject, the first sub-control volume comprising a first free formdeformation geometry; choosing a second sub-control volume comprising asecond free form deformation geometry; and replacing the firstsub-control volume with the second sub-control volume in the modularfree form deformation control volume by using the free form deformationgeometry of the second sub-control volume instead of the free formdeformation geometry of the first sub-control volume.